Client management

Client structure overview

Clients in OneHQ are organised into Client Groups, each containing one or more Entities. A group represents a client relationship — for example, "Henderson Family" or "Williams & Co" — and entities are the individual tax structures within that relationship (companies, trusts, individuals, SMSFs, partnerships).

This two-level structure reflects how Australian accounting practices actually manage their clients. A single family or business group typically has multiple entities: a trading company, a family trust, individual tax returns for each director, and perhaps a self-managed super fund.

When you select a client group in OneHQ, you see all its entities listed together with their obligations, jobs, billing, and communication history. Entity-level views drill into the detail for a specific structure, while group-level views give you the full picture across all related entities.

Entity types

Each entity in OneHQ has a type that determines which fields and compliance obligations are available. The five entity types mirror the structures used by the ATO and ASIC:

All entity types support registrations (GST, PAYG withholding, PAYG instalments, FBT, etc.), contacts, and obligations. The type primarily affects which people fields are shown (directors vs. beneficiaries vs. members) and which obligations are relevant.

Adding clients

There are two ways to add clients to OneHQ:

Add a new client group

Click the "+" button in the Client mode sidebar or use the Add Client action. This creates a new client group and its first entity at the same time. You provide:

• Group name — the client relationship name (e.g. "Henderson Family")
• Entity name — the first entity's legal name
• Entity type — Company, Trust, Individual, SMSF, or Partnership
• ABN — optional but recommended for Xero auto-matching
• Accountant & Bookkeeper — assign staff members responsible for this client

Add an entity to an existing group

Open a client group, then click "Add Entity" to add another entity to that group. This is how you build out a client's full structure — adding the family trust, individual returns, SMSF, and so on under the same group.

Contacts

Each entity has a list of contacts — the people associated with that entity. Depending on the entity type, these might be directors, trustees, beneficiaries, individual taxpayers, SMSF members, or partners.

Each contact record includes:

• Name — full name of the person
• Email — used for e-signing requests and email communications
• Phone — used for SMS and phone call logging
• Role — their role in relation to the entity (director, trustee, beneficiary, etc.)

Cross-entity linking

Contacts can be linked across entities within the same group. For example, John Henderson might be a director of Henderson Trading Pty Ltd and also a trustee of the Henderson Family Trust. Rather than duplicating contact details, you link the same person across both entities.

Linked contacts share the same email and phone details, so updating one updates all linked instances. This is particularly useful for e-signing — when a document is sent for signature, OneHQ looks up the signer's email from the entity's contacts.

Obligations

Obligations are the compliance requirements assigned to each entity. They define what work needs to be done and how often. When obligations are set on an entity, OneHQ uses them to generate jobs automatically.

Obligation types

Assigning obligations

Obligations are set per entity via the entity's Compliance tab or when editing an entity. Each obligation can have a preparer assigned — the staff member responsible for completing that work. Obligations also support state selection for state-based requirements like Payroll Tax.

Practice-wide configuration

Obligation types are configured at the practice level in Settings > Setup & Menus. You can customise which obligation types are available, their frequencies, and add custom obligation types specific to your practice. System obligation types (BAS, Tax Return, etc.) cannot be deleted but can be customised.

Client boarding

OneHQ includes built-in onboarding and offboarding workflows to manage the process of taking on new clients or transitioning clients out of your practice.

How boarding works

Customising checklists

Boarding checklists are customisable per practice. Go to Settings > Setup & Menus to add, edit, reorder, or remove checklist items. Default items are seeded when you create your practice, but you can tailor them to match your firm's processes. Separate checklists are maintained for onboarding and offboarding.

Communication history

Every entity and client group in OneHQ maintains a communication timeline — a chronological record of all interactions with that client. This creates a complete audit trail that any team member can review.

Communication types

The timeline supports several entry types:

• Email — logged email correspondence (synced from Gmail/Outlook or manually added)
• Phone call — notes from phone conversations with clients
• Note — internal notes, file notes, or memos about the client
• Lodgement — records of returns or documents lodged with the ATO or other bodies
• Payment — payment receipts or fee payment records
• SMS sent / SMS received — text message conversations via ClickSend

Group vs. entity communications

Communications can be logged at either the group level (visible when viewing the group) or the entity level (visible on the specific entity's Communication tab). Group-level communications are useful for matters that span multiple entities, while entity-level entries keep the history focused on a specific structure.

Frequently asked questions